The advisor's role in mental health and suicide prevention

September is Suicide Prevention and Awareness month, with September 10th recognized as World Suicide Prevention Day. It’s estimated that 50 percent of people will be affected by suicide at some point in their life. Our employer clients play an outsized role in the health outcomes of their employees, which means we have an opportunity and in fact, imperative to drive suicide awareness and prevention efforts in the workplace.

Let’s first discuss some key statistics around suicide to set the stage for why our clients and we as advisors must tackle this issue. We’ll then explore what can be done in the workplace to prevent suicide.

According to the World Health Organization, more than 700,000 people die due to suicide every year, with 47,500 Americas dying by suicide in 2019. Eighty percent of those who die by suicide are in their working age years and middle-aged men have the highest rate of suicide. It is the 2nd and 4th leading cause of death for people aged 10 to 34 and 35 to 44, respectively.

Related: Is there a place for suicide prevention in the workplace?

Over half of Americans have been affected by suicide in some way, and 93 percent believe suicide is preventable. One possible reason why is that 90 percent of those who die by suicide have a diagnosable mental health condition at the time of their death. And among those with a diagnosed mental health condition, nearly 44 percent did not receive mental health services in the past year. 

There are many reasons why people don’t receive care. Our position as advisors means this gap in care is our unique opportunity to drive change in this critical area of public health. As such, advisors should understand some key facts about suicide prevention, and incorporate them into their practices and the work they do with their clients.

Let’s focus first on the shocking stat that 73 percent of the U.S. did not have enough mental health providers to serve residents in 2020. What does this mean for employees and their mental health?

Americans already struggle with affording surprise medical expenses: The average American cannot afford a $500 emergency expense. Add on top of this how hard it can be to find in-network mental health providers, which forces employees to go out-of-network for care, and the aforementioned statistic about an inadequate supply of mental health providers, and you have a perfect storm where employees will struggle to get timely and appropriate mental and behavioral healthcare due to the lack of affordable and available providers.

There are many societal costs stemming from inadequate mental health and suicide, and employers are just one party who bear these costs. At the same time, employers engage with us as advisors to provide affordable, appropriate, and relevant care that treats employees the right way at the right time for the right cost. We have a unique opportunity to lead change in this area by helping employers increase mental health awareness and prevent suicide, enhancing our value add to our clients while also serving the public good.

Awareness and prevention in the workplace starts at the top. I believe leadership is the single greatest force multiplier for a workplace initiative like mental health and suicide prevention.

When leadership values mental health and suicide prevention, and invests time and effort in understanding and leading change in this area, we can expect improved results in the workplace.

Mental health has been in the headlines recently due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting work from home environment. We must employ a framework to focus our efforts and assess our effectiveness in this domain.

One resource I love to refer to employers who are mindful about mental health and suicide prevention is the non-profit Workplace Suicide Prevention (WSP), a collaboration between the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the American Association of Suicidology, and United Suicide Survivors International. It provides employers with a roadmap of nine recommended practices to intervene and respond to signs of distress and prevent suicide.

Leadership plays a central role in suicide prevention efforts in the workplace. We’re big Jim Collins fans in our office, and we strongly believe that a Level 5 Leader is integral to the success of an enterprise. It’s vital that we emphasize leadership’s role in suicide prevention, and identify how the WSP framework relies on leadership’s pivotal role in stigma reduction and suicide prevention. 

Leaders must step forward when it comes to reducing job strain, communicating with employees, and “going first” when it comes to authenticity and personal experience. When leaders go first, express authenticity, and encourage and support others, they multiply their own efforts throughout the organization to prevent suicide and increase mental health awareness.

Leaders must foster a caring culture focused on well-being. When they are authentic about their own experiences, struggles, or pursuit of mental health resources, they can catalyze action and awareness among employees like no one else in the enterprise.

This also enhances the company’s efforts in other areas, such as job strain reduction, training, communication, mitigating risk, promoting mental health and crisis resources, and peer support.

As advisors, our role does not end with finding the right health plan. We must educate leaders around mental health and suicide prevention using many of the points included above and available resources like those through the Workplace Suicide Prevention collaboration. 

We can help leaders vet mental health resources such as EAPs and help HR teams promote tools to their team. Communication does not start and end with open enrollment; it is an ongoing effort 12 months a year.

We must recognize our role as leaders of leaders. Our clients rely on our expertise to cut through the noise and help them do what’s right for their teams. We are their filter. They want to do well for their team and learn from us. And since we know suicide will affect about half of Americans, we have a mandate to do what we can to help those we serve. 

John Hansbrough is a benefits advisor at The LBL Group. 

Sources: 

Going Digital: Behavioral Health Tech Blog. “Employers and Suicide Prevention.” Published Sep 16 2021

https://www.behavioralhealthtech.com/blog/employers-and-suicide-prevention 

Workplace Suicide Prevention https://workplacesuicideprevention.com 

Jim Collins “Level 5 Leadership.” https://www.jimcollins.com/concepts/level-five-leadership.html 

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. “Suicide Facts” www.afsp.org/statistics/